{"id":778,"date":"2011-04-27T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/?p=778"},"modified":"2011-04-26T09:11:57","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:11:57","slug":"interview-with-susan-goldsmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/?p=778","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Susan Goldsmith"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a chance to talk to Susan Goldsmith, author of a wonderful new fantasy\/romance novel, Abithica. (Click here<\/a> for my review.)<\/p>\n

\"\" Me: Do you believe there are angels among us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: I sure as heck hope so!<\/p>\n

Me: Which character was the most fun to write and why? The most difficult?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: Writing about Eliam, a smart-aleck, troubled teen with ADHD who is too self absorbed to realize he\u2019s in danger, was effortless. No really. All I had to do was let go, and give him the reins. Off he\u2019d fly, spewing his twisted view of the world all over the page! Never thought I\u2019d have so much fun writing in a male voice.
\nAbithica was much harder. I knew her intimately. I can\u2019t tell you how many thousands of words I deleted because the Abithica on paper wasn\u2019t matching the Abithica in my head.<\/p>\n

Me: What’s your favorite book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: No fair! That\u2019s like asking which of my children I love the best. My answer to that, by the way, is whichever one I\u2019m with at the time\u2026.
\nMy favorite book changes with my mood. Maybe if we tweak the question, and ask instead: What book\/author has inspired you the most; it might at least narrow it down a bit.
\nI grew up reading Stephen King so he\u2019d be way up there on my list. If I had to pick one of his books, it would have to be The Stand. Fell asleep every night to Neil Diamond telling the story of Richard Bach\u2019s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Man what I\u2019d give to get my hands on that record! Yup, let\u2019s add Jonathan Livingston Seagull to the tally. The Time Traveler\u2019s Wife was the first paranormal romance I\u2019d ever read. When I was finished, I thought to myself, hey, why can\u2019t I write something like that?\u2014Susie style, of course. So, let\u2019s put that one somewhere near the top, and while we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s make some room for Stephenie Meyer\u2019s Twilight. When my husband first read it, he actually thought (probably did some serious wishing too) I\u2019d written it under a different name. Bryan and I met our freshman year in biology. He was my partner. (No he\u2019s not a vampire! Sheesh!!!) But there were fireworks. Long story, but it was the excitement I saw on his face for that brief second before I rudely crushed his fantasy that keeps me at the computer even on days I don\u2019t want to be there.<\/p>\n

Me: What inspired you to write this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: My vacuum, Thomas Moore and my very persistent imagination were the inspiration behind Abithica. Maybe I should explain that. You see, all my best thoughts have come while pulling a vacuum. Now enter Thomas Moore. He wrote a book called Care of the Soul. In it, he asked a very profound question: what is your worst fear? Hmmm, what is my worst fear, I wondered. Naturally, I grabbed said vacuum and unleashed my imagination.
\nLosing my husband and children was the answer. Oh, but what if I was taken from them without their knowledge and they didn\u2019t even know I was gone? Ouch! That would definitely suck. But what would suck even more is if another soul took my place and I was there, unseen, invisible, watching their lives continue as if I had never existed.
\nI was getting closer to my worst nightmare, but I wasn\u2019t quite there yet. It needed a little something more. Got it! What if the body I was in had never really belonged to me in the first place? What if it was me who had been the intruder all along? I had been borrowing the woman\u2019s life\u2026 and now\u2026 she wanted it back.
\nThe question became an obsession, and my vacuum and I spent a lot of time together. Soon, the idea of \u201cswitching\u201d was born. It grew legs and arms and even acquired a face, Abithica\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

Me: What kind of research did you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: Oh boy! This is where I should probably give a shout out to Google! If you somehow hacked into my computer, you\u2019d see some pretty strange sites dealing with things like, angel conspiracy theories, demons, funny names for the male anatomy (Eliam!); angelic script\u2026 the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

Me: This book had a strong religious feel to it, without being overly preachy. Is that important to you? What message did you hope readers would take away from your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: Nobody that knows me would define me as religious. Spiritual hits much closer to home. I guess you could say Abithica is you and me. She is anybody who has ever asked the questions, why am I here? Is there a God, a purpose, a cosmic plan? With that said, I guess hope is the take away.<\/p>\n

Me: What are you working on now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: I\u2019m 47,000 words into the sequel.<\/p>\n

Me: Is there anything else I should have asked?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: Come visit me on Goodreads, facebook, or even my website. I love talking to readers!<\/p>\n

Me: Is there anything you wish I hadn’t asked?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan: Nope. Already fixed it by changing the: What is Your Favorite Book question. My bad?<\/p>\n

Me: No, you were absolutely welcome to interpret the question in any way that made sense to you! It was a pleasure having the chance to interview you. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a chance to talk to Susan Goldsmith, author of a wonderful new fantasy\/romance novel, Abithica. (Click here for my review.) Me: Do you believe there are angels among us? Susan: I sure as heck hope so! Me: Which character was the most fun to write and why? The most difficult? Susan: Writing about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}